While the 2013 operation to evacuate whistleblower Edward Snowden from Hong Kong, where he faced impending arrest, involved a degree of subterfuge, no Chinese or Russian intelligence agents were involved in it, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange said.

The rebuttal of a theory of possible involvement of Chinese of
Russian special services in NSA whistleblower’s departure from
China to Russia came at the Moscow premiere of a documentary
detailing Snowden’s escape.

Whistleblower site WikiLeaks provided logistical and legal
support for the NSA fugitive, with lawyer Sarah Harrison
accompanying Snowden during his several last days in Hong Kong
and his trip to Moscow. Site founder Assange, himself a fugitive
stranded in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, assured that the
diversions used to cover Snowden’s departure came from their
experience of opposing government agencies over the years.

“There was no participation of any intelligence service. We say
this loudly because we put a lot of work and some risk and some
money into pulling this through,” Assange told a Moscow audience
via a link.

“I’ve being studying these agencies – principally in the United
States, but also around the world – for 20 years now. So in order
to defend our journalists, our sources and our financial
structure we had to understand these things,” he added.

The film is called ‘Terminal F’ after the Moscow airport terminal
where Snowden was stranded after the US revoked his passport and
until Russia gave him political asylum and allowed him entry. It
was produced by filmmakers John Goetz and Poul-Erik Heilbuth and
based primarily on interviews with Snowden, former NSA chief
Michael Hayden, and Assange and Harrison. They detail how the
situation was viewed from various perspectives.

Harrison revealed that Snowden was approached once by Russia’s
security service, the FSB, and offered immediate entry into
Russia in exchange for working for them. The American rejected
the proposal, she said.

The documentary also revealed that WikiLeaks was likely the
source of misinformation that Snowden was taken abroad the plane
of Bolivian President Evo Morales, who visited Russia at the time
of Snowden’s debacle and publicly stated that he would grant him
asylum if asked.

Acting on the tip, the US government pressured European nations
to close their airspace to the plane, forcing it down and
subjecting it to a search. The episode triggered a major
diplomatic scandal and, according to some critics of Washington,
exposed the real nature of its relations with European nations.

Edward Snowden, a former NSA employee, is responsible for the
biggest leak of classified documents in US history. He is wanted
on espionage charges by the US justice. The leaks revealed to the
public the mass scale of US intelligence gathering via electronic
communication channels, which, according to critics, amounts to
gross violation of privacy.

Snowden is viewed by many people as a heroic figure that risked
his successful career and freedom in order to expose corrupt
governmental practices. Russia granted him political asylum in
2013 and a residence permit one year later.